For non-canonical amino acid incorporation, the amber (UAG) stop codon was used for all α7 subunit incorporation. The 74-nucleotide THG73 tRNA and 76-nucleotide THG73 tRNA were in vitro transcribed using the MEGAshortscript T7 (Ambion) kit and isolated using Chroma Spin DEPC-H2O columns (Clontech). Synthesized non-canonical amino acids coupled to the dinucleotide dCA were enzymatically ligated to the 74-nucleotide tRNA as previously described (Nowak, et al., 1998 (link); Xiu, et al., 2009 (link)).
ND96 media was used for all experimental running/wash buffers (96 mM NaCl, 1.8mM CaCl2, 2 mM KCl, 1 mM MgCl2, 5 mM HEPES at pH 7.5). ND96+ media was used for oocyte storage media (2.5mM sodium pyruvate and 6.7mM theophylline added). No gentamicin was added to the ND96+ storage media in order to avoid distorting ACh-induced responses (Amici, et al., 2005 (link)).